AZ Supreme Court Hears Argument on Paid Sick Leave Proposition

The Arizona Supreme Court held oral argument last week on whether Proposition 206 violates the “Revenue Source Rule” of the state constitution. The 44 minute video archive of the oral argument is here. The Court will issue its decision in due course.

As I had written in a prior post, nearly 60% of Arizona voters approved Proposition 206 in November. Codified as The Fair Wages and Healthy Families Act, it raised the minimum wage to $10 per hour on January 1, 2017 and requires most Arizona employers to provide paid sick leave beginning July 1, 2017. The Arizona Chamber of Commerce and a host of other plaintiffs filed a lawsuit in December against the State of Arizona and a host of other defendants seeking to enjoin its implementation. In December, a Maricopa County Superior Court judge and then the Arizona Supreme Court denied the injunction request. The plaintiffs claim that the proposition violates the Revenue Source Rule because it will lead to increased costs to the state and it does not identify a revenue source to fund the additional cost, essentially an unfunded mandate.